Influencer marketing is a modern marketing method that focuses on using influential people, and respected personalities in an industry or niche to drive brand’s message across to a bigger market.
It refers to the act of asking someone with authority or influence to promote your brand or convey your message to the market instead of you doing the marketing yourself.
A research conducted by Dr. Jonah Berger, marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania found that 82 percent of consumers are highly likely to buy products recommended by an influencer. This is why a provider of social media management Florida business managers trust highly recommends influencer marketing as a way to boost conversion and sales.
Typically, influencer marketing comes together with two other types of marketing: social media marketing and content marketing. Influencer marketing actually cannot stand alone because it has a social media component that leverages on the influencers’ personal social channels. Professionals in digital marketing like the social media management services Florida companies prefer consider it a major player in the online marketing arena.
In certain instances, influencer campaigns are part of a content written by the product owner or the influencers themselves. Either way, the content will be published by the influencers on their websites or blogs for their followers to read.
How Influencers Work
To sum it all up, influencers work to expose and promote your brand to their audience. They can help you to find more customers to buy your products. They can do promotional work independently although a help from you would certainly be welcome.
The types of content influencers typically create to promote your brand includes blog posts, social media posts, case studies, videos, and testimonials. Because it emanates from somebody respected in a certain field or niche, influencer marketing is a highly effective promotional strategy recommended by experienced providers of social media management services.
You can try it, but you need to find an authority in your niche who’s willing to represent your brand. There are always authority figures in every subject and finding one who can help to make your brand seen by their audience should not be a problem.
It’s not unusual for people to think of influencer marketing as having a celebrity post a photo of himself holding up a product. Although this type of product promotion is acceptable , it is not the only way to have a product promoted by influential individuals. There are people who prefer to buy products endorsed by trusted non-celebrities.
Where can Influencer Marketing be Most Effective?
In this juncture, make yourself ready for a pleasant surprise.
A study conducted by TapInfluence in collaboration with Nielsen Catalina Solutions reveals that influencer marketing has the capability to deliver ROI that is 11 times higher than the ROI of traditional digital marketing.
This implies that if you’re only using SEO, social media, pay per click and other forms of traditional digital marketing strategies to promote your business, you’re actually missing a great opportunity to boost your returns on investment.
It doesn’t really matter what type of business, service or brand you’re promoting. Everyone can try influencer marketing to boost brand visibility, conversion, and sales.
Even SEO agencies like us can benefit from influencer marketing. We can ask satisfied clients to promote our agency or recommend us to their fellow business website owners.
Case Studies
Case studies about a particular thing or process can help to educate readers and help them find answers to questions they might have about advantages and disadvantages of using a particular subject.
Conduct a case study on your clients and ask them to make video testimonials about the process. Also let them know that you want to make them part of a referral program you have created, and seek their permission to use the results of their case studies.
This might sound like a big favor to ask from a client. But customers who have a positive experience from your services would be more than happy to share their success story on your website.
Collect a dozen or more case studies from different clients and publish them on your website and social media pages. These are new and additional content your clients will certainly appreciate.
You may also write your case study in PDF format and share it with your case study client. They will certainly share the same with their peers especially if that case study has really helped them attain a definite objective.
Testing New Products
The testing of a new product is a sensitive subject and must be given only to people you can trust. You can use a trusted client to the new product test for you. Be sure to let that client know that your company is making a move to level up using a more advanced product or technique and you want them as your test.
Don’t forget to ask that this test is free of charge – this will prevent any misunderstanding later on whatever the outcome of the test will be.
If the test results are in your favor, fine. You’ve just added a new product or feature to your product that can help to lift your business up. If things don’t work they way you want, be sure to get a detailed and honest feedback from your client so that you will know which part of your product needs to be fixed.
Partnering with Other Brands
Brands regardless of size can increase their potential to connect to new and larger audiences by partnering with each other. Brands that partner with each other even if they don’t belong to the same industry can reach new audiences with influencer marketing.
For example, a company engaged in the camping and outdoor business can feature a recipe from a camp cooking brand to expose the latter to its own audience. In the same manner, the camp cooking brand may also feature the camping brand’s bags and wares to contain their food an keep them fresh and clean. Influencer marketing can be a bond that binds two brands towards a great partnership. It’s where two brands work together to market both products to a much bigger audience.
Businesses Of Course
Influencer marketing is most suitable for businesses because it also deals with the promotion of commercial products or services. Some big brands even go to the extent by having their brands featured in the social media accounts of celebrities. But as a business, you don’t really need to go that far to make influencer marketing work for you.
One of the most effective moves you can do to create an effective influencer marketing strategy for your business is to create a list of the most influential tradesmen in your industry, reach out to them and ask them to use your products or recommend those to their clients.
Reaching out to persons with authority is a big aspect of inluencer marketing. As much as you can, find many influencers who are willing to promote your product to maximize your brand’s exposure and to win the consumer trust. Once you are able to establish this, your product will certainly occupy a comfortable spot in the marketplace.
Do You Need to Pay an Influencer?
In most instances, influencers are not paid. Just give them free samples of the product or service you wish them to promote and that’s it. The deal is done. But there are times when an influencer becomes a costly strategy. It usually happens when you choose a big influencer such as a celebrity.
Bigger influencers tend to demand more. If you want to get a huge impact from your influencer marketing, you can try asking a celebrity to do it for you on their social media accounts – but you must be willing to break your wallet for it.
Who are the Expensive and Economical Influencers?
If you are aiming for a big exposure, you should have the right budget to match it. Once you’re all set, find a lawyer who can help you get a contract with an influencer with the magnitude you have in mind. Just see to it that every condition that you have agreed with the influencer is written on the contract.
The economical (or cheap) influencers are the ones who agree to promote your products for free. They are the ones who may already have spent a lot of time promoting your brand simply because they love your product or service. In case you missed it, this type of influencer is vanishing but there are still a few you can hope to find.
Influencer marketing can be an excellent extension of your SEO. As a provider of social media management Florida business managers trust, we are certain of its capability to boost your brand’s exposure, win more trust, and increase your ROI.
Contact us at (303) 466-3055.